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JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE 

LAWYER, STATESMAN, 
HUMORIST, ORATOR 



John E. Milholland 



C4SM(:> 



New York: 

american craftsman print 

1897 



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(Conyrighttd by Barmore, No. Ill Fifth Ave., New-York.) 



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This little sketch of Mr. Choate is substan- 
tially a republication of an article that I wrote 
for "The New-York Tribune" about three years 
ago. At that time I did not even enjoy personal 
acquaintance with him, I mention the fact to 
absolve him from anj^ responsibility for what I 
said or repeat. 

It is, as I have stated, a sketch, not a study. 
I have merely dra'v^hi'the -outlines, enlivening the 
background with some characterizations, a few 
bits of biography and illustrative anecdotes. 
His political and professional speeches, his mas- 
terly work in the late Constitutional Conven- 
tion, his memorable arguments before the courts 
and his various contributions to the thought of 
the day I have been compelled, owing to a lack 
of time at my disposal, for the present to leave 
to others. My aim has been to illustrate his 
character, courage and public spirit, that make 
him essentially the man of the liour, and one 
thoroughly qualified to meet the requirements 



of the existing political situation in this im- 
perial Commonwealth. 

The inquiries that have come to me from vari- 
ous parts of the State and elsewhere for some- 
thing more about his personality than appears 
in the encyclopedias has led to tlie publication 
of the article in this form. J. E. M. 




JOSEPH H. CHOATE 



AD RUPUS CHOATE never lived, 
'" or had he been merely a repu- 
table country lawyer, without 
wit, humor, eloquence, scholarly 
attainments, statesmanship qualities or a brill- 
iant intellect, his kinsman, who delights New- 
York from time to time and whom New-York 
occasionally delights to honor, would be even 
more famous with the great mass of people than 
he is at present. In a sense, Mr. Choate is not 
a popular hero. To many outside the Eastern 
States he exists only as a name, and a name 
sometimes confused with that of his relative. 
Among the greatest advocates of the century, 
he stands at the head of the American Bar and 
in the foremost file of platform and post-pran- 
dial orators; the peer of any living man in men- 
tal ability, effectiveness of speech, graciousness 



of manner, readiness of wit, spontaneity of 
humor, rapidity and range of ideas, lucidity of 
statement and mastery of human emotion, and 
yet he is really less known to the public than 
hundreds of men whom he easily ranks. 

It Avould be unjust, however, to attribute the 
limitations of liis fame to the traditional in- 
fluence of his gifted cousin. There are other 
causes. One is his partnership with William 
M. Evarts and that venerable gentleman's po- 
litical activity. People find it almost as difti- 
cult to believe that two such leaders of the 
Bar could be united in one firm as that father 
and son or uncle and nephew might be equally 
renowned. While Mr. Evarts' s powerful per- 
sonality remained in public view its shadow 
rested upon liis younger associate, obscuring 
him, though unintentionally, of course, from 
the gaze of the multitude. 

But more potent than anything else in pre- 
venting him from becoming a more conspic- 
uous figure in the popular eye is Mr. Choate's 
own disposition. A genuine New-Englander, 
democratic in his faith and practice, liberal in 
his views, broad in his sympathies and full 
of common-sense, lie is nevertheless as retiring, 
as conservative and, in the best sense, as ai'is- 



tocratic as was Lowell himself, whom he re- 
sembles iu many traits of character. Without 
a superior before a jury, able to arouse the 
enthusiasm of any assembly before which he 
appears, his utterances on all subjects com- 
manding attention, respect and applause, he is 
not in the ordinary sense an idol of the people, 
like Blaine. To them he is the embodiment of 
dignity and reserve, relieved by a charming 
urbanity. They admire his brilliancy, liis in- 
imitable, unfailing humor, which, as Frederic 
R. Coudert observes, is absolutely unique, his 
marvellous persuasive powers, his courage and 
chivalrous bearing, but still they erroneously 
feel that he holds himself aloof from them, 
that he is removed from their domain of every- 
day life, and hence they have Deen content to 
see him as Pindar says he saw Archilochus— at 
a distance. 

If further cause should be sought for this 
apparent laclv of appreciation on the part of 
the masses it may be found in Mr. Choate's 
aversion to public life. Until nominated a 
member of the Constitutional Convention in 
1894 he had never been a candidate for public 
office. Neither had he sought appointments at 
the hands of the Federal, State or city gov- 

— 9 — 



eriimeDt. But while not an office-seeker he 
has never held public honors in contempt. As 
he quaintly says: "I have made it a rule never 
to seek office, nor never decline; but I suppose 
my friends knew I did not desire office, and 
that is wliy they never nominated me." He 
has been content with the honors that come to 
him from his remarkable professional success, 
his occasional appearance at important public 
dinners, in exciting campaigns, and at critical 
stages of our municipal affairs; in his interest 
in the Union League Club, of which he has 
been president, and his intimate connection 
with the New-England Society, to which he is 
most devoted. 

This is the natural trend of his life, not be- 
cause he is indiiiereat to the cause of good 
government or the needs of the people, but 
simply that, absorbed in his professional labors, 
he feels that his services are not required in 
party management or in the conduct of public 
affairs. But when the need of his aid is ap- 
parent, when a public task Avorthy of his 
powers demands attention, he is as quick to 
respond as any citizen in the metropolis. When 
there is a Street Cleaning Commissioner to be 
arraigned; a member of the Bar to be saved 

— 10 — 



from being sent to jail because of his recliless 
devotion to his client's interests; when an ar- 
rogant element of the population is to be good- 
naturedly reminded of its faults; a theft of 
the State Legislature to be exposed; a Tweed 
ring to be overthrown, a rotten Republican en- 
rolment to be investigated; a Presidential trust 
to be fought in the interests of the people's 
candidate; or a dangerous State machine of his 
own party to be smashed, Joseph H. Choate is 
among the first to answer the clear call of 
duty. 

It has become customary to say that Mr. 
Choate is a poor politician. As the term is 
ordinarily employed and understood he is, but 
it is precisely this quality in him, this readi- 
ness to say that which he really thinks, this 
freedom from cowardice, this detestation of 
trucl^ling to ignorance and brutality in au- 
thority, this absolute independence that make 
sober-minded, patriotic citizens look up to him 
with so much respect and confidence. And 
this element of his character is no new devel- 
opment; it has always been one of his striking 
characteristics. In a speech before the New- 
England Society at Delmonico's in 1865, with 



Recorder (afterward Governor) Hoffman, Gen- 
eral Hancock, Admiral Farragut, Theodore 
Tilton, the Rev. Dr. Bellows and Senator Lane 
among the invited guests, he welcomed the rep- 
resentative of the St. Patrick's Society with 
some playful remarks that caused as much hub- 
bub at the time, according to tradition, as his 
later address on St. Patrick's Day. But the 
criticism that followed had no effect in making 
him less outspoken. He is accustomed to such 
criticism. He understands it thoroughly. He 
knows that it is based upon ignorance, nar- 
rowness, prejudice. There is not a more 
zealous advocate of freedom for all nations, 
Cuba or Ireland, than Mr. Choate, but his belief 
in Home Rule does not blind him to the public 
sins of omission and commission by its advo- 
cates. He is not more ready to denounce Irish 
transgressors than he is those of any other 
nationality, as his memorable treatment of Ben 
jamin F, Butler, while that politician was Gov- 
ernor of Massachusetts, demonstrated. 

An official dinner was to be given at Cam- 
bridge by an association of which Senator 
Hoar, of Massachusetts, was the president. 
Phillips Brooks and Mr. Choate were the 
vice-presidents. It has been etiquette for a 

— 12 — 



century for the Governor of the State to come 
to that dinner. The Governor had usually been 
a graduate of Harvard College, but there had 
been an upheaval. General Butler was Gov- 
ernor. Senator Hoar would not receive him. 
Phillips Brooks went to Europe. There was no- 
body in Massachusetts who could or would 
fill the difficult position. They had to send to 
New-York for Mr. Choate to preside. It is 
wonderful to note the tact with which he 
meted out to the Governor the respect due his 
position, and at the same time administered to 
Benjamin F. Butler a castigation such as suited 
the outraged feelings of the guests. The casti- 
gation was well fitted, because General Butler 
had formerly said many severe things about 
his entertainers and their college. 

The next year a Harvard man was again 
Governor of the State, and Mr. Choate alluded 
in his annual address to the fact that "grim- 
visaged war" — General Butler — "had smoothed 
her wrinkled front." 

These illustrations might be supplemented 
witli an account of Mr. Choate's course in de- 
fending John W. Goff from the wrath and 
condemnation of Recorder Smyth and the Po- 
lice Department; of his vigorous denunciation 

— 13 — 



before the Maj^or of the incompetence of Tam- 
many's Street Cleaning Commissioner; of his 
open defiance of Judge Trnax when that genial 
dignitary of the bencli attempted, as Mr. 
Choate thought, to deprive him of his rights; 
of his hearty espousal of the cause of Dorman 
B. Eaton, when he had been brutally assaulted 
and nearly killed for exposing the doings of 
Fisli, Tweed and their rascally tools on the 
bench, and of his relentless prosecution of 
Tweed and his associates. 

Another display of this quality, so thorough- 
ly ingrained in Mr. Choate's character, was be- 
fore Justice Van Brunt. The Judge has a 
habit which often distresses members of the 
bar who appear before him, particularly 
young men, of tallving to his associates on the 
bench while the lawyers are delivering their 
speeches. At times this becomes exasperating, 
but the lawyers have not, as a rule, the temer- 
ity to complain, for they recognize the power 
of the court, and Judge Van Brunt, with all 
his estimable qualities, has a manner that 
causes him to be held in dread by most practi- 
tioners, who naturally seek to maintain as 
pleasant relations as possible with the Court. 



Mr. Clioate was about to make the closing 
speech in a highly important case. Forty min- 
utes had been allotted him for the purpose. 
He had scarcely uttered a dozen words when 
Judge Van Brunt wheeled around in his chair 
and began a discussion with Judge Andrews. 
Mr. Choate ceased speaking immediately, fold- 
ed his arms and gazed steadily at the Judges, 
his handsome face a trifle paler than usual. A 
hush fell upon the courtroom. Judge Van 
Brunt, noticing the stillness, turned around and 
looked inquiringly at the silent advocate. 

"Your Honor," said Mr. Choate, "I have just 
forty minutes in which to make my final argu- 
ment. I shall not only need every second of 
that time to do it justice, but I shall also need 
your undivided attention." 

"And you shall have it," promptly responded 
the Judge, at the same time acknowledging the 
justice of the rebuke by a faint flush on his 
cheeks. It was an exhibition of genuine cour- 
age, but one that was more fully appreciated 
by members of the profession than by the lay- 
men who witnessed it. 

This recalls in its boldness Rufus Choate's 
exception to a ruling of that exceedingly able 
but excessively homely jurist, Chief Justice 

— 15 — 



Shaw, of Massachusetts. He declared that he 
venerated the Court as the Indian does his curi- 
ously carved log— "I acknowledge he is ugly, 
but I feel that he is great." And Shaw never 
forgave the retort. 

But sometimes even courage appears in an 
unfavorable light, as when, for instance, Mr. 
Choate in his professional capacity has been 
called upon to defend trusts and sorely pressed 
Tammany ^Mayors. 

Mr. Choate's biography is not a hackneyed 
theme. His career has never yet been de- 
scribed save in the most condensed form; he 
has shunned notoriety as he w^ould a plague. 
Born in the Salem of Hawthorne on January 
24, 1832, his father was a cousin of Rufus 
Choate, who was then just entering his sec- 
ond term in Congress to distinguish himself 
by a great speech on the tariff. The family 
was one of the oldest in New-England. The 
earliest ancestor, John Choate, became a citi- 
zen of Massachusetts in 16G7. The grandson 
of this first ancestor, also named John, was 
a member of the Massachusetts Legislature 
from 1741 till 1761, and for the five years fol- 
lowing a member of the Governor's Council. 

— 16 — 



strength of character and mental vigor were 
dominant characteristics of the race. David, a 
son of the Massachusetts legislator, and the 
father of Rufus, had not been trained in law, 
but on one occasion when he had a suit pending 
in court and his counsel happened to be absent 
he took up the case himself, examined his wit- 
nesses, tore to shreds the testimony of the 
other side, made a sound and eloquent argu- 
ment and won the case. 

No doubt some interesting stories might be 
told of Joseph's boyhood ind school days, but 
the chroniclers are silent regarding that period. 
They say notliing as to whether he was pre- 
cocious, like his famous relative Rufus, who, 
when a small boy, could repeat from memory 
page after page of the "Pilgrim's Progress," or 
whether his intellectual powders were of more 
gradual growth. Rufus Choate was a devoted 
alumnus of Dartmouth, but Joseph went to 
Harvard, and was graduated in the class of 
'52. Phillips Brooks was in college at the same 
time. Mr. Choate describes the great preacher 
as he saw him the first time, a tall, ungainly 
youth, but with a manner so irresistible that 
he captivated his classmates almost instanta- 
neously. After graduation he spent two years 

— 17 — 



at the law school and received the sheep- 
skin at the end of the term. In 1855 he was 
admitted to the bar in Massachusetts, and 
in the following year came to New-York. He 
has practised here ever since. His brother, 
William Gardner Choate, who became United 
States Judge for the Southern District of this 
State, went through college and the law school 
with him. 

The period in which Mr. Choate began his ca- 
reer here is commonly referred to as the golden 
age of the metropolitan bar. James T. Brady 
was a conspicuous figure in the popular eye. 
Charles O'Conor had already made a deep and 
lasting impression. Mr. Evarts was in the 
front rank of politics as well as of law. Mr. 
Hoffman was equally prominent on the Demo- 
cratic side, and Mr. Stanford's brilliancy and 
marvellous powers in cross-examination had 
given him an enviable reputation. The legal 
heavens were studded with stars of such 
lustre that the modest young stranger from the 
Old Bay State might well have felt some con- 
cern about his own future. But from all ac- 
counts he displayed no anxiety. He hung out 
his shingle and began to look for clients. They 

— 18 — 



came. An opportunity was given him to dis- 
play his qualities as an advocate. He was 
closely watched by the veterans who knew his 
li:insman. When he had finished his first im- 
portant speech they agreed that he was worthy 
to bear the family name. Mr. Evarts was 
particularly attracted to him. A partnership 
was formed. It continues. It was more than 
a professional association; they were united 
by the bonds of friendship that have never been 
severed. Success and fame came quickly. 

The firm is generally looked upon as the lead- 
ing one in the country. Its business is enor- 
mous. Mr. Choate enjoys a lucrative practice, 
though his fees are looked upon as modest. 
The great lawyers who were his predecessors, 
such, for instance, as his relative, Rufus 
Choate, tried trifling country lawsuits all their 
days, with an occasional case of magnitude, 
but even this involved an amount which would 
be inconsiderable in his cousin's practice. So 
it was with Erskine and Nicholas Hill, and 
even Daniel Webster. It is remarked in court 
circles that :Mr. Choate's contemporaries divide 
among them one-half of the business of the 
first magnitude, and Mr. Choate has the other 
half to himself. Why is it? His method goes 

— 19 — 



light home to the heart and head of judge 
and juryman. Where other lawy^i'^ are sol- 
emn and portentous, or wild or unpleasant, he 
is humorous and human. He assumes no su- 
perior air; often he speaks with his hands in 
his pockets. He strives to stir up no dark pas- 
sions. While he is always a little keener, a 
little finer, and more witty than the man in the 
box or on the bench, yet he is always a brother 
man to him. 

A history of Mr. Choate's professional career 
would require a sl^etch of a majority of the 
great cases that have been tried here and at 
Washington since the War. It would involve, 
among others, the story . of the Tweed Ring 
prosecution, of the protracted investigation of 
the case of General Fitz-John Porter, whom he 
defended at West Point before the board of 
oflacers appointed by President Hayes, which 
lesulted in the reversal of the judgment of the 
original court-martial; of the celebrated libel 
suit instituted by Gaston L. Feuardent against 
General Cesnola, whom Mr. Choate successfully 
defended; of the Tilden will case; the contest 
over Commodore Yanderbilt's millions; the Chi- 
nese exclusion case, in which he argued 

— 20 — 



ngaiiist tho validity of the act; his appeal to the 
Supreme Court in behalf of David Neagfe, who 
shot Judge Terry in defence of Justice Field, 
and whose act was decreed to be no violation 
of the law; the Stokes will fight; the case of 
Manchester against the State of Massachusetts 
before the United States Supreme Court; the 
Behring Sea controversy; the great Income Tax 
suit before the Supreme Court, in which he 
was ably assisted by his talented young friend, 
William D. Guthrie; the theft of the State Sen- 
ate by the Hill ring, and the memorable suit 
brought by David Stewart in 1881 against Col- 
lis P. Huntington for the payment of a large 
sum of money, which the plaintiff declared 
was due him under the terms of agreement 
that he made with Huntington at the time 
when he purchased a block of Central Pacific 
stock from the defendant. 

This was one of unusual interest. All those 
involved were well known, and the recital of 
the doings of the "Big Four" of the Pacific 
Coast, Huntington, Hopkins, Crocker and Stan- 
ford, in connection with the Central Pacific's 
construction, which was brought out by the 
trial, made an entertaining chapter at the 
hands of Mr. Choate, who appeared alone for 



Mr. Stewart, His rival in a dozeu contests, 
Francis N, Bangs, whose passages at arms 
with him in the Cesnola case will long be re- 
membered, and Roscoe Conlvling, then in the 
prime of his intellectual life and entirely de- 
voted to his law practice, had been retainea 
by Mr. Huntington. They made a formidable 
pair of defenders. Mr. Choate made the most 
of this fact with the jury. "I doubt, gentle- 
men," he said, "whether any man ever had to 
contend alone against so powerful a combina- 
tion. In the first place, there is the defend- 
ant himself, one of the three great railway 
nlonarchs of the world, all powerful throughout 
the length and breadth of the land, and he 
has called here to aid him, as was his right, 
the greatest powers of the bar, the most astute, 
the most crafty— in the best sense of the word 
—the most skilful of our profession, and," with 
a graceful wave of the hand toward Mr. Conk- 
ling, "the very Demosthenes of our time. And 
yet I do not feel entirely alone or entirely un- 
armed. I have the evidence in this case with 
me, and if I can put that little weapon in my 
sling and aim straight at his forehead, the re- 
cent Goliath of the continent is bound to bite 
the dust." 

— 22 — 



The marvellous rapidity with which he takes 
advantage of every point and sees the elements 
in every situation that are favorable to him 
was exhibited to advantage on this trial again 
and again. Mr. Huntington while on the 
stand proved, from the layman point of view, 
a poor witness for Mr. Choate. His memory 
was sadly defective. Mr. Choate's most skil- 
ful cross-qaestioning could elicit from him lit- 
tle if any specific information as to the opera- 
tions of the famous Contract and Finance Com- 
pany. His counsel smiled blandly and the 
plaintiff himself looked gloomy. But observe 
with what telling effect Mr. Choate used this 
temporary triumph of his opponent. 

"My learned friends upon the other side," 
said he in closing, "have expressed a little re- 
gret and a kind of rebuke for me because I de- 
scribed their client as the Jay Gould of the 
Pacific Coast. Now, gentlemen, a great his- 
torical person like Mr, Gould we speak of 
without personality, and I challenge your at- 
tention to the appearance of this defendant on 
the stand to say whether he has not filled the 
bill. Remember that dreadful Black Friday, 
when the wizard of the New-York Stock Mar- 
ket pulled the wires behind the scenes that 

— 23 — 



brought destruction upon so many honest men, 
and afterward, when called !n a court of jus- 
tice to describe the proceedings of that day, he 
knew absolutely nothing about it, although it 
was all his own work. And positively as to a 
certain check he had drawn, he could not say 
whether it was for five million or ten million 
dollars. When Mr. Huntington took this stand 
and swore that as to the dividends he had 
received from the Contract and Finance Com- 
pany between October, 1867, and jNIay, 1870, he 
would not tell whether they were one million 
or two millions, three millions, four millions or 
five millions— did he not fill the bill?" 

Mr. Conkling had insisted that his client was 
not responsible for what his associates had 
done on the Pacific Coast. To this Mr. Choate 
responded: "Well, gentlemen, it reminds me 
of an alibi that was Introduced in another fa- 
mous case. You remember when Mr. Tony 
Weller was called in consultation about the 
defence of Mr. Pickwick, in whose arms the 
fair widoAv who sued him had been found dis- 
solving in tears, and he said: 'Sammy, my ad- 
vice to you is to prove an alibi.' Some defend- 
ants, when brought to trial, believe in charac- 
ter, and some in an alibi; but I advise you to 

— 24 — 



stick to an alibi and let the character go. This 
double of Mr. Huntington, under whose cover 
he exists, and is in two places at the same 
time— on the Atlantic and the Pacific— my dis- 
tinguished friend said it was a romance, the 
connection between him and Mark Hopkins. I 
thought, gentlemen, of that other romance, 
the story of 'My Double and How He Undid 
Me,' and it seems that the defendant was then 
to undo him in this case— this Mark Hopkins, 
by whom he was represented absolutely, com- 
pletely, and without any limitation whatever, 
so that you might say that when Mr. Hunt- 
ington took snuff on the Atlantic Coast, Mr. 
Hopkins sneezed on the Pacific." 

A little further on he paid a glowing tribute 
to Mr. Conkling— one, it is said, that the ex- 
Senator held in grateful remembrance. "How- 
ever we may differ," said Mr. Choate, "one 
from another, or all of us from him, we owe 
the Senator one debt of gratitude for standing 
steadfast and incorruptible in the halls of cor- 
ruption. Shadrach, Meshech and Abednego 
won immortal glory for passing one day in the 
fiery furnace, but he has been twenty years 
there and has come out without even the smell 
of smoke upon his garments." 

— 25 — 



There were sharp encounters every day be- 
tween these powerful adversaries:, but Mr. 
Choate never failed to hold his own, and 
usually came off victorious. In the course of 
one of his speeches Mr. Conkling quoted a pub- 
lished description of Mr. Choate's appearance. 
It provolied a laugh, in which the victim 
joined good-naturedly. But when he came to 
reply he turned the laugh on his opponent. 
"My learned friend," he blandly remarked, "has 
been a little personal. He has seen fit to quote 
for your entertainment and that of the learned 
Court and this audience a description of my 
face and features that he gathered from a 
newspaper. I do not like to lie under this im- 
putation and I will return it. But, gentle- 
men, not from any newspaper— oh, no! I will 
paint his picture as it has been painted by an 
immortal pen. I will give you a description 
of him as the divine Shakespeare painted it, 
for he must have had my learned friend in his 
eye when he said: 

"See what a grace is seated on his brow; 
Hyperion's curl, the front of Jove himself; 
An eye, like Mars, to threaten and command— 
A combination and a form indeed, 
Where every god did seem to set his seal, 
To give the world assurance of a man." 
— 26 — 



In the general laugh that greeted this quota- 
tion Mr. Conkling joined heartily. 

Shakespearian quotations are in great favor 
with Mr. Choate, but he uses them only when 
they are apposite. A hit which he scored in thb 
Cesnola trial is illustrative of this. Clarence 
Cook, the art critic, had given testimony unfavor- 
able to General Cesnola, whom Mr. Choate was 
defending. Something was developed on the 
cross-examination that materially weakened the 
statements made by the witness, whereupon Mr. 
Choate turned, his countenance expressive of 
well-assumed indignation, and, pointing his fin- 
ger at Mr. Cook, said, dramatically: 

"False, fleeting, perjured Clarence!" 

His tilts with Mr. Bangs, however, were most 
frequent and most severe. Nothing could be 
more striking than the contrast in the manner of 
the two contestants. Mr. Bangs was impulsive, 
excitable; Mr. Choate has never yet, it is said, 
been known to lose control of himself in court. 
No matter what happens, no matter w^hat is 
said, he invariably remains cool and complacent. 
This gav>e him an important advantage over Mr. 
Bangs, who remarked more than once that his 
"life would be shortened by that fellow Choate." 

— 27 — 



Mrs. Paran Stevens was sued by Richard M. 
Hunt, the architect, for services in building the 
Victoria Hotel. In summing up Mr. Choate said: 
"For the last week, gentlemen of the jury, we 
have been engaged here in bitt'er contest. It has 
tired us all. Coming by my children's nursery 
door this morning it was soothing to the ear to 
hear the children recite tlie nursery ballad of 
'The House that Jack Built,' for this, gentle- 
men, is the house that Jack built. My client is 
the unfortunat-e Jack, and," with deference, 
"you, madam," bowing gracefully to Mrs. Ste- 
vens, "may be called the maiden that milked the 
cow with the crumpled horn, which might stand 
for the somewhat crumpled Stevens estate." 
Th'e Stevens estate was in continual litigation 
for many years. 

One of Mr. Choate's friends describes a scene 
before Judge Freedman some years ago. The 
counsK?! for the plaintiff, John E. Parsons, de- 
nounced the defendant insurance company as 
"vampires, bloodless monsters, that feed on the 
blood of the people," etc. It was a savage ad- 
dress of the old-fashioned style. When ;Mr. Par- 
sons sat down the courtroom seemed to buzz. 
Mr. Choate was lying back in his chair, with bis 

— 28 — 



eyes to the ceiling- and his hands in his pockets. 
"Mr. Choate, it is your turn,'' said the Judge, 
and Mr. Choate arose, still with his bauds in his 
pockets. "If Your Honor please, and gentlemen 
of the jury," said he, "do you know what a 
varnpire really is? Look at the Quaker gentle- 
man who is the president of this company. He 
sits there in his Quaker clothes and white neck- 
cloth. Look at that innocent young man, his 
atttorney, who sits next him and has a smile on 
his face. You thought vampires were some- 
thing out of the way when Brother Parsons de- 
scribed them, but these are regular, genuine vam- 
pires." 

The excitement of the spectators mer,.;-ed into 
a laugh and then into a feeling friendly to the 
speaker. 

In a Cooper Institute meeting the discussion 
was about Tammany's judicial nomination of a 
wealthy young man. Mr. Choate spoke of the 
nominee in the most friendly terms, but added: 
"Yes; he is a capable young man. In his term 
of fourteen years he will learn enough to be a 
judge." 

A pompous young man called on Mr. Choate 
at his office. He was asked to take a chair. The 



lawyer was busy, but the youth was impa- 
tient, and in a moment interrupted the law- 
yer again with the remark, "I am Bishop 
Blank's son." "Please take two chairs," said 
Mr. Choate. 

But to hear him at his best one must go to the 
New-England Society's dinners -those gather- 
ings, as he calls them, of an "unhappy company 
of Pilgrims who meet annually at Delmonico's 
to drown the sorrows and sufferings of llieir an- 
cestors in the flowing bowl, and to contemi)late 
their own virtues in the mirror of history"— par- 
ticularly if Mr. Depew is there, too. In the 
words of Secretary ITubbard, who Mr, (.'hoate in- 
sists came over in the Mayflower, "it is a rare 
treat." Everybody knows that Mr. Ohoate will 
liave some fun at the expense of liis famous 
rival, and everybitdj^ knows that Mr. Depew will 
not spare him in return. 

He was once delivering the opening address on 
his pet theme, "Forefathers' Day." Mr. Depew 
was to follow with a toast to "The State of New- 
York." "One day last week," said Mr. Choate, 
"I was waited upon bj^ a representative of one 
of our great metropolitan dailies with a polite 

— 30 — 



request that I should furnish him with a copy 
of the speech I was to deliver this eveuiug, in 
order that it might be 'set up' at the latest on 
Monday morning for publication to-morroAV. 
'God bless you,' said I, 'I have no copy to give 
you. How can 1 make an after-dinner speech 
until I have made sure of my dinner?' ^VeW, he 
seemed a little chopfalleu, but proceeded to argue 
the matter. 'Why,' said he, 'we have got all the 
rest.' 'Surely,' said I, 'you have not got De- 
l>ew's.' 'Oh, yes,' said he, 'we have got him 
cold in cold type' " 

A roar of laughter followed at the expense of 
the Central's president. After a while it was his 
turn. "The reporter who called on me for my 
speech," lie remarked, "said to me, as he said to 
Choate: 'I have them all,' but also added: 'Have 
you any poetry in yours?' Said 1: 'No.' 'Well,' 
said he, 'Choate has, and after reading it I came 
to the conclusion that he must have written it 
liimself.' 

At one dinner General Porter and Mr. Depew 
were both present. Mr. Choate's face fairly 
beamed with delight as he extended to them a 
greeting that brought down the house. "I am 
sure," he said, "you would not allow me to quit 

— 31 — 



this pleasing programme if I did not felicitate 
yon upon the presence of two other gentle- 
men without whom no baminet is ever 
complete. I mean, of course, Mr. Dep^w and 
General Porter. Their splendid efforts on a 
thousand fields like this have fairly won their 
golden spurs. I forget whether it was Pythago- 
ras or Emerson who finally decided that the 
soul of mankind is located in the stomach, but 
these two gentlemen, certainly, by their achieve- 
jneuts on such arenas as this, have demonstrated 
at least this rule of anatomy, that the pyloric 
orifice is the shortest cut to the human brain. 
Their well-won title of first of dinner orators is 
the true survival of the fittest, for I assure you 
that tlieir triumphant struggles in all these many 
years at scenes like this would long ago have 
laid all the rest of us under the table, if not 
under the sod. And so I think in your names 
I may bid tliem welcome, thrice welcome— duo 
fulmina belli." 

His speeches on these occasions sparkle with 
wit and glow with humor. "Now," said he once, 
glancing up admiringly at the gallery in Del- 
mouico's dining-room, which had just been filled 
with ladies, "now I understand Avliat the Script- 



ural phrase means, 'Thou madest man a little 
lower than the angels.' " 

His response to a toast to the fair sex .s well 
known, but it will bear repetition: "And then 
women, the better-half of the Yankee world, at 
whose tender summons even the stern Pilgi'ims 
were ever ready to spring to arms, and without 
whose aid they never could have achieved their 
historic title of the Pilgrim Fathers. The Pil- 
grim Mothers were more devoted martyrs than 
were the Pilgrim Fathers, because they had not 
only to bear the same hardships that the Pilgrim 
Fathers suffered, but they had to bear with 
the Pilgrim Fathers besides." 

His gallantry is proverbial, like the spotless- 
ness of the Bayards. It has had some charm- 
ing exhibitions. He and Mrs. Ghoate were re- 
cently dining with New-York friends. Some 
one asked him who he would prefer to be if he 
could not be himself. He hesitated for a mo- 
ment, apparently running over in his mind the 
great ones on earth, when his eyes fell upon 
Mrs. Choate. "If I could not be myself," he 
suddenly replied, "I should like to be Mrs. 
Choate's second husband!" 

— 33 — 

L. Of C- 



He is not, however, all mirth. It is, at most, 
only a happy incident in his life. With all his 
pleasantries he is still the New-Englander of 
conscience, culture and fervent patriotism, and 
the manner in which he blends these qualities 
with his humorous utterances is sometimes most 
delightful. Tal^e, for example, his introduction 
of General Sherman. "I do not know," said he, 
"that the great General of our armies drew his 
first breath upon New-England soil, but this I 
know, that he has eaten so good a share of so 
many New-England dinners that a full current 
of New-England blood must now flow in his 
veins. He was a leader of New-England 'hosts' 
long before ho ate his first dish of pork and 
beans at your table. Wlieu, following the glori- 
ous soul of John Brown, that always marched 
on before, he led his battalions of Yankees 
through Georgia, from Atlanta to the sea, he 
was writing a genuine chapter of the Pilgrim's 
progress." 

When serious, few rise higiier in flights of elo- 
quence. "How," he asked in introducing Gen- 
eral Grant, "could the United States of America 
be so fitly represented and responded to as by 
that great soldier, who long ago spoke for her 

— 34 — 



at the caunon's inoutli iu tliuiider touos that still 
echo around the globe?" 

Nothing seems to stir his spirit like the Pil- 
grims. Here is one of his glowing periods, tlu' 
peroration of a New-England dinner speech: 
"When that little company of Nonconformists 
at Scrooby, with Elder William Brewster at their 
head, having lost all but conscience and honor, 
took their lives in their hands and fled to Protes- 
tant Holland, seeking nothing but freedom to 
worship God in their own way, and to earn their 
scanty bread by the sweat of their brows; when 
they toiled and worshipped there at Leyden for 
twelve long suffering years; when at last, long- 
ing for a larger liberty, they crossed the raging 
Atlantic in that crazy little bark that bore at 
th-e peak the cross of St. George, the sole emblem 
of their country and their hopes; w^hen they 
landed in the dead of winter on a stern and rock- 
bound coast; when they saw, before the spring 
came around, half of the number of their deai- 
comrades perish of cold and want; when they 
knew not where to lay their heads— 

"They little thought how clear a light 
With years should gather round this day, 

How love should keep their memories bright, 
How wide a realm their sons should sway. 
— 35 — 



How the day and the place should be honored 
as the source from which true liberty derived 
its birth, and how at last a Nation of fifty mill- 
ions of freemen should bend in homage over 
their shrine. We honor them for their dauntless 
courage, for their sublime virtue, for their self- 
denial, for their hard work, for their common- 
sense, for their ever-living sense of duty, for 
their fear of God, that cast out all other fears, 
and for their raging thirst for liberty. In com- 
mon with all those generations through which 
we trace our proud lineage to their hardy stock, 
we owe a great share of all that we have 
achieved, and all that we enjoy of strength, of 
freedom, of prosperity, to their matchless virtue 
and their grand example. So long as America 
continues to love truth and duty, so long as she 
cherishes liberty and justice, she will never tire 
of hearing the praises of the Pilgrims or of heap- 
ing fresh incense upon their altar." 



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